dalves

I've got a "Print" question for anyone who can help. I was working on a game that had a layout of a house. When I used "Print" to create the individual rooms, after making 3 rooms I must have exceeded some capability as the screen would only go black when running it until I deleted one of the rooms. I figured maybe what I needed to do was create one room and use variables for the wall patterns and colors to make each room look different. I figured out how to change the color of the room, but trying to change the character value hasn't worked. An example would be using the variable WP=272 instead of "\272". When I try printing "\WP" gives an error that "WP is not read". I'm sure my syntax is is wrong, but not sure the right way to write it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks DZ. I found that tutorial and will try the code.

Quick question. DZ has suggested using putting some of the Sprites behind the background to add depth. I've been checking the sample codes I have and couldn't find an example on how to do this. Can someone give an example of how the command is written or suggest a sample code where this is used?

Hey everyone, I decided to upload the ROM and BAS files of what I have of the game so far. Just a reminder that this game is still in the "Sketch" stages. I have the general idea of what I want it to be but need to fine tune what aliens play what part. Right now it is set up with 5 levels that are all the same other than the backgrounds changing color. I think I'm going to eventually have it so each stage is almost it's own game, with ships and tasks unique to that level. I've got most of the bugs ironed out, but still have a couple more to correct. If you look at my code, you will see how limited I am in my understanding of programming for Intellivision at this point. I draw the backgrounds and use sprites, and then the rest of it is all "IF" statements. Hopefully as I learn more my games and programming will improve as well. inv10.bas inv10.rom

Thanks for the input. DZ, I LOVE some of your ideas to give the game depth. I recently read something about the "Behind" statement and I'll have to find an example of it. I was thinking about drawing the bottom of a large mothership at the top of the screen and have the other ships emerge from that. The general idea is kind of a hybrid between Space Invades and Missile Command. You have large and small ships descending on the planet. The large ships use guided missiles to keep you occupied and away from the smaller ships that are looking to destroy the 3 underground cities you're defending. I'm going to tweak a couple things and then I'll post the ROM and BAS files for anyone who's interested.

My first game is coming along pretty well, considering my limited knowledge of the code. The background needs more work and the stars need to look more random, but the general layout is there. Still need to figure out how to do an animated explosion without slowing down the rest of the sprites. I'm using GOSUB with WAIT to draw each sprite of the explosion and it bogs down the game.

Thanks a ton for the help and insight. It is all starting to make more sense now. I'll try to post a ROM soon of what I'm working on for anyone who's interested.

I just checked and I'm using the SDK 1.0.1. I downloaded IntyBasic 1.2.6 and saw there were a lot more .bas files in the Contributions folder. I will check those out and see if I can figure it out. I was checking out the AppleCatcher.bas, as that seemed to be one with a very detailed background. If I understand correctly, it looks like you create the background images using Bitmaps and then use Print to draw them in the tile?

Thanks Groovybee, that helps a ton. Most of my basic programming experience comes from having a Color Computer 3 as a kid. Programming graphics was very different in that system and I'm still feeling my way through the Intellivision way. Perhaps I am getting greedy here, but do you know of any real basic examples of how this is done? It would be great to look at the code and figure out the right way to do it?

I guess that is part of what I don't understand at this point in my learning to program. Can I define a configuration of pixels into a single card and then copy that card to multiple locations on the screen? In the way you can do with sprites?

Thanks Kiwi, I had done that before but the stars looked huge. Wasn't sure if there was a way to draw individual pixels in the tiles while still being able to maintain text in other tiles. Groovybee, I was looking for a basic static one like in Astrosmash.

Making some progress, slow but sure... I was wondering if anyone out there has seen an example .bas of a starfield? I can make one using Paint.NET, but then have trouble displaying text and sprites. I have absolutely no doubt I'm doing something wrong but still trying to figure out what. I'm assuming there are commands for drawing individual pixels and lines that I just don't know about yet. Not sure if anyone would mind, but as I've been learning as a beginner, I've been putting together a "How to" PDF from the perspective of a beginner. I thought maybe it would be helpful for those like me who are just starting out like me.

Catsfolly, I love what you did with Robot Blast. I was trying to use this code you provided to figure out how to do something in a game I'm working on. I'm trying to get a missile to start at a set coordinate (say the center bottom of the screen) and end up at the x,y coordinates of the cursor. In my limited programming experience, I'm previously used For/Next statements achieve this, but found changing value of the variables in a loop is the better way. I'm having a brain cramp because I can't seem to figure out the right way to have the missile start from a specific location but end up at the cursor location. Thanks again for the code. It is incredibly valuable for a newbie like me.

Thanks again for your responses and information. I guess this is one of the difficulties with being a beginner. I've been able to use some of the sample codes that people have shared to start to do some very basic programming. There is still a lot of it that looks like a foreign language to me. I'm sure I can chip away at it slowly, but when you can put something together that kind of resembles a game, you want to have all the answers immediately so you can keep creating. Astrosmash is one of my favorite games and I'm currently using that as a template to learn how to program. I've been able to program some basic functions like moving, firing, print the characters that form the mountain outline, have an asteroid falling from random locations and have affected score and lives. I still need to figure out how to make the starfield and add more falling asteroids and get the animated ship to fire. I'm sure I will over time. Who knows, I've always wanted to create a sequel to Astrosmash, and maybe someday soon I can.

As a side note. I'm doing okay with looking at existing programs and learning from that. Occasionally the syntax of certain commands seems to vary in different program. I'm trying to use RAND in an existing program to create a random "X" coordinate of an enemy. One example program shows it written as (Using X as the variable), "X=RAND/2+20", another one shows it as "X=RAND % 16". If anyone can help with this, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Kiwi. The description for the WAIT command and missile code helped a bunch. I think the spirit of the code I'm using is correct, but I know it is long winded and clunky. I still am having a problem with assigning the CS_LIGHTBLUE. I am including the most recent Constants.bas. I'm printing the bar as written below. PRINT AT 20 COLOR CS_LIGHTBLUE, "\165" When I use any of the first 8 colors, the character displays correctly, but when I assign any color after that, the it is all garbled. The question I'm trying to find an answer to about sprites is about using the same sprite on the screen multiple times. An example would be Space Armada. I always assumed that the rows of aliens were the same sprite used several times to create a row. Or as in Astrosmash when you have multiple asteroids falling that are the same graphic but different colors. I didn't think you'd have to create a separate sprite for each one. (One other thing I'd like to figure out is how to generate a random star field, like in Astrosmash.)

I've been trying my hand at programming for the Intellivision using IntyBasic. I've put together a basic program to gain some experience with sprites, collision detection, score keeping, and so on. I've uploaded the .bas file for anyone who wants to take a look. I'm hoping to gain some insight into some problems I'm having trouble figuring out and also would appreciate any tips on improving my code. Below are some questions I have and areas I hope to understand better. Any help would be greatly appreciated. 1. The code I've written is functional, but not sure if there are more efficient ways to do the same functions. 2. Still not 100% clear on the "WAIT" command. I assumed it is used to refresh the graphics. I'm not sure if I'm using it in places where it isn't needed or not using it enough. 3. When drawing the bars on the sides of the screen, I was hoping to have the blocks colored as (White, Light Blue, Blue, Light Blue, White). Unfortunately, it seems I can only access the first 8 colors and can't use the light blue. Not sure what I can do to make that work. 4. Originally was using a For/Next loop to fire the missile, but it would stop all other movement until the For/Next was complete. I found a work around for that, but still have the missile following the horizontal movement of the player's ship. Would appreciate any insight in how to have the missile stay at the "X" location it was fired from, but allowing the user to still move the ship. 5. I had read somewhere that you can't use the same sprite multiple times on screen. I was wondering if this is true and if so, I'm assuming there must be a work around. I know I will come across more questions as I do more programming, but these are the ones I was hoping for some help with at this time. Again, any help would be appreciated. st3.bas

Thank you for the information and things to try/check. My apologies Groovybee as I checked my code and I was in fact missing a "WAIT" after the new code command. Thank you guys for all your help and information, and I hope you'll forgive the stupid questions from a new guy. Sometimes I feel like I'm learning a new language. I know a few words, but I'm trying to make complete sentences through trial and error. Thanks again for all the help...

Thank you so much for the description DZ. That has helped a lot in understanding how it works. I've started reading through the link you provided and I'm assuming I'll absorb more when I get a chance to read it outside of work. When you said "Thus, if you want to change the background colour of a Color Stack screen, just change the first color in the stack", I wasn't sure if you meant to write another "Mode" line. For example, If when creating my title screen if I use (MODE 0, STACK_BROWN,STACK_CYAN,STACK_BLUE,STACK_PURPLE). But when I begin the game I want a black background so I should clear the screen then write another line (MODE 0,STACK_BLACK,STACK_CYAN,STACK_BLUE, STACK_PURPLE). I tried something similar in another program and found that it turned everything on the screen to the same color. Even a line of text that came after it that I specified to be white.

Okay, so I modified Groovybee's code a bit so I could try some things. What I originally tried was using cont1.up to cycle through the Color Stack colors but it would only advance to the next color and stop. I was trying to keep moving to the next color in the stack at the #Backtab (0) position so it would color the whole screen. That didn't seem to work. I'm assuming I must be missing something very simple here. Do I have to somehow reset the $BACKTAB(0) position to change it to a new color? For better or for worse, I've also been doing some programming on my Color Computer 3 recently. Maybe I've been spoiled only having to use "CLS" or "HCLS" and the color I want to have the whole background reset as that color. Like I said, I'm sure as I'm new to IntyBasic, it is something I am missing. include "constants.bas" cls mode 0, STACK_PINK,STACK_CYAN,STACK_BLUE,STACK_PURPLE wait test: if cont1.up then #BACKTAB(0)=CS_ADVANCE if cont1.down then #BACKTAB(1)=CS_ADVANCE if cont1.left then #BACKTAB(2)=CS_ADVANCE if cont1.right then #BACKTAB(3)=CS_ADVANCE wait goto test

Thanks for the info. I've downloaded the files and will follow your instructions and see if that gets me up and running. Thanks again... (I just tried it and everything runs perfect now. Thanks so much for the help. )

I'm using IntyBASIC SDK 1.0.1. I tried downloading what appeared to be an updated version of the constants.bas and put it un the lib folder, but still get the same error.

When I try to build the rom with the code as is, it says "Using array without previous DIM, autoassigning DIM (10) in line 6". I always hate asking newbie questions like this.

Thanks a bunch. I'll give that a shot.